From Ashes and Dust
by BunnyPrincess101
Summary: AU. In the summer of 1986, things look bad for everyone. A couple of otherworldly watchers decide to take matters into their own hands. Enter a couple of college students who can teach some people a thing or two. Co-written with helenw713 and TK216411.


**Through Time and Space**

**Prologue: Making Plans**

Disclaimer: None of us own Harry Potter. If we did, we wouldn't be writing this. We'd be publishing it.

Authors' Notes: Ladies and germs, this is an AU that we spent months (okay, days) researching. This is posted on Belen's (BunnyPrincess101's) account, but it's cowritten by Helen (helenw713) and Kathryn (TK216411). This _is_ self-insert, but for a good cause: to see what life would be like on the other side of the universe. In the author's note, Belen will write in **bold**, Helen will write in _italics_, and Kathryn will write in underline. Clear enough?

And I should warn you that parts of this chapter will make no sense to you yet. Unless you are incredibly astute, in which case, kudos to you. But it will become blindingly obvious in retrospect. (Except for all the techno-talk) Good luck.

* * *

"When the door of happiness closes, another opens, but often times we look so long at the closed door that we don't see the one that has been opened for us."

-Helen Keller

* * *

"Aaargh!"

Six people looked up from the plans on the table in front of them, smiling faintly, as a large, spinning "black-with-green-lights-thrown-in" vortex appeared in the air. The source of the screaming became clear as it spat a girl onto the floor and vanished as quickly as it'd come, as if it had never been there at all.

The girl huffed and pushed herself off, sweeping light brown hair off of her face as she looked crossly at the six of them. "You know, you really need to get a more comfortable way to get to this place."

One of the women, dressed in white, at the table smiled and helped her up, ushering her to one of the three open seats at the head of the table. "Dear, you know this is all just a dream. You'll forget all about the discomfort when you wake up."

"That's because when you wake up, you'll be too busy writing to remember," quipped a voice. The six - now seven - seated looked up, startled, then smiled as they caught sight of the young woman silhouetted in the doorway. Black hair, black eyes, black clothing with a hint of red thrown in - yes, that was her.

The first one laughed ruefully. "Yeah, I guess that's true. But you're worse. Last time, we were all waiting 'cause you were too busy writing, or trying to write, to fall asleep. We already stay up until three for midterms - how you manage to stay in the world of the conscious at all I will never understand."

The second smiled and crossed over to the seat at the very head of the table, next to the first and an empty chair. "Anyone know when Kathryn's going to make it?" she asked the group at large.

One of the men, this one dressed in red, glanced around. "Actually, she never did specify a time . . . "

The two women glanced at each other and groaned in unison. "Perfect, just perfect," the first mumbled. She glanced at her bare wrist regretfully and sighed, "I don't suppose you brought your bracelet?"

"Sorry, no. I _thought_ she was going to come without being called this time."

"Alex is missing, too," spoke up a blue-clad girl sitting nearest the end of the table. "Just like them, always late-"

"I'm here, I'm here!"

Heads turned as a red-headed girl dashed through the hallway leading to the bedchambers, closely followed by a black-draped young man with a rather amused expression on his face. "I'm so sorry, I lost track of time, and Alex kept getting us lost-"

"Alex?" the man robed in red asked. "It's your _home_. How can you get lost?"

"He can't," the third arrival grumbled as she took the last remaining seat at the head of the table, Alex sitting at the end. "He just wanted to make me late-"

"Not like he had to work hard," a man in green muttered.

The second arrival laughed, then fished out a binder almost overflowing with notes. "Okay, okay, order!"

The council fell silent. Alexander, Anne, Lily, Matthew, William, Connor, and Rose - protectors of worlds - were now looking at the three sitting in the place of honor.

Three college students.

Carina Belen Ordoñez - the first - exuded an air of peace, calmness . . . that everything was going to be all right. She didn't look like anything out of the ordinary - light brown hair and dark brown eyes, dressed in a blue shirt and skirt, wearing black boots that hugged her calves - but there was something about the way she _held_ herself that gave off a _feel._

Kathryn Tarnay, on the other hand, expressed the very opposite - chaos, confusion, pandemonium. Her wildly red hair was everywhere, hanging down her back and over her shoulder, and her hazel eyes were always darting around quickly. The most normal part of her was her clothing; she was wearing a light green T-shirt and a pair of jeans. But she had a sort of magnetic pull that reminded people of partying and chaos, of laughter and the little things in life that broke you out of a pattern.

And then Helen Wang, the reluctant leader. Like the others, nothing about her was special. Her dark hair was pulled back into a braid, dark eyes focused on the papers in front of her. She, too, was dressed casually - in a black skirt, tights, and a black tank top with reddish accents, but there was nothing normal about her, about the way she _felt._ She was the one who blended into the shadows at a party, more at home with complete strangers and best friends than with acquaintances. But she was their leader, and - when she wasn't in a Mood - she did a decent job of it.

They sat in silence for a second as Helen spread the plans across the table, arranging them better for everyone to see. It was Anne, draped with blue, that broke it. "So, what is it, girls? You never come hear yourselves unless you have an important idea-"

"Which has happened far too often lately," Will cut in, his eyes as green as his clothing. "Too much overactive thinking, too little actual work."

"You can blame college life, boyfriends, and procrastination for that," Belen said firmly. "The only time we actually have to ourselves are after lights-out, and that's when the ideas start flowing."

"Anyway," Connor, clothed in red, broke in. "What was it you wanted to discuss with us?"

Helen nodded and gestured at one of the plans, covered in her scrawling handwriting. "I _just_ think it might be possible, if we tweak the time-space continuum a little bit-"

Alex leaned forward eagerly, cutting her off. "Wait! Are you going to let me, this time?"

Kathryn frowned, but it was plain for all to see that there was a smirk underneath it. "Let you do what?"

"You know perfectly well what! Are you?"

Belen smiled. "Yes."

Alex leaped into the air, yelling for joy, and remained there for about ten seconds, at which time the combined powers of the other six people present returned him gently but firmly to his chair.

"When?" was the first understandable word out of his mouth.

"Hmm. Let me see." Helen pulled a scrap of paper from the pocket of her jeans. "Standard timeline . . . more or less, a few adjustments here and there . . . shall we say December of '01? Give him time to get nefarious, self-assured, then take him down but good."

Alex nodded. "Yes, ma'am. December of '01. You got it. You want it, you got it. That's me, Alex, cold-blooded killer. Snuff 'em on demand. That's what I do."

"Stuff it, Alex," Kathryn said fondly, leaning over to look at some of the more complex diagrams. "Now, we might just change it . . . we really haven't decided, should we go all-out and go from '81 to '97? That _would_ be fun. Of course, that would be sixteen years, and that is a lot . . . "

"Or do we just settle for the six and take it from '97 to '01?" Belen finished, pulling out a pen and marking something out on a picture of a vortex. "Ella - are these your physics notes?"

"Yes," Helen admitted. "But you have to admit, they're the best of all of ours."

Rose, a young lady adorned in a clear, bright yellow, nodded absentmindedly. "I'd say go for '81 to '97. It works better."

"Yes," Helen sighed. "But the thing is, if we start after the big bang in '81, it's not as fun. But if we start before the big bang in '81, it's too long. And, if we start at '97 . . . look, that may be cooler, but right now, it's a tie between after the '81 bang and summer of '97."

"If you want my input-" Alex began.

"We don't," Kathryn cut him off.

He slumped back in his chair, muttering to himself. "Well, why did you call this meeting, then?"

All nine of the others ignored him as they continued to talk out the pros and cons of each side. Belen frowned, and said in an undertone to Helen and Kathryn, "I think we should do both, actually. Raise one for a while, then bring 'em back."

"But that wouldn't work, because of the age difference," Kathryn argued. "And since we already know how summer of '97 turns out-"

"All right, all right, '81 it is," Helen sighed. "Who knows - we may be coming to you again, just to see if we can do the other one."

Kathryn nodded and briefly sketched out some figures. "Let's say . . . from '86 to '97, then?"

Gray-clothed Matt nodded and turned to Alex. "That moves the date to summer of '97, if that's okay?"

Alex nodded enthusiastically. "Longer a wait, but I can manage."

Helen nodded. "Good." She bent over her sketches again, saying, "Okay, but now we've got some work to do . . . push a few death dates back, erase that little event-"

"Can't forget the kidnappings," Belen added. "We have to think up a plausible explanation for that."

Kathryn blinked, then sighed, "Looks like we're going to have to brush up on the string theory."

Lily, in white, pulled out a long list, and she, Helen, Belen, and Kathryn, along with Rose and Anne, bent over it.

"That one, there," said Helen, stabbing a finger down. "Can we get that essence transferred to . . . " She flipped over a few pages. "This line? I'll arrange for the continuance factor, because this first one's going extinct too soon, with these changes, to sustain this . . . and the circumstances for the removal process won't be present, even if the substance bits worked out, which they won't . . . However, if we can craft the transdimensional theory in our favor, instead of alternate universe theory, and go with the fourth dimensional route, only in that dimensions are bound within universes . . . Not to mention that we need some sort of opening here, sustainable cross-worlds . . . what makes it different is that magic _cannot_ be involved right now . . . "

"I think that can be done," said Rose, making a note. "Completely different physical parameters, of course, you know."

"I know. No harm there, I don't think. Do you?" Belen asked.

Shaking heads all around the table.

"Good. Now, need to move a couple - birth-dates and death-dates - up – this one just a bit, this one a bit more – this one needs to go back to type, there's no way that's possible – and that one can't die that soon, maybe a little bit of alternate-universe tweaking, too, plus some transdimensional travel . . . and do you think we could get these two combined? Because we need them both, but you know as well as I do about the time factor . . . " Helen muttered.

Belen nodded. "And there's no way that can happen any more, we might as well change the entire line there, and maybe we can salvage that . . . grief, perhaps? And a sudden, coincidental meeting . . . the combination has to be exactly right, though."

"Combination's doable. Ditto for the moving – as long as you make sure the substance is in position on time," Anne replied.

"Don't worry, it will be." Kathryn grinned. "Just watch the mistresses work, and with Helen's perfectly thought-out universe, no less. Oh yes, and I need a flip-on for You-Know-Who. She's going in."

"Well, good for her." Connor nodded. "Give her some opportunities. Think we can handle that, Li, Ro?"

"Of course. We'd be delighted."

"Also," Helen added, "we need some sort of phenomenon to occur . . . some explanation, other than 'it's destiny,' too tried-and-not-true . . . "

"I assume you want it for the five of you, not just the three of you?" Anne asked.

"Yes, please, if it's not too much . . . and we'll somehow have to figure out this one, so that not even he can explain it away, and we'll have to find a way to fit this in . . . dang it, this is going to be harder than I expected," Belen muttered.

"What about dormancy?" Kathryn asked. "And if _this_ line crosses with this one to awaken it-"

Helen squinted at the parchment, now marked with Kathryn's annotations, that she was holding out. "Dormancy? Well, I suppose that could work . . . we would need some kind of training, though-"

"No need," Alex prompted, getting up to see the scroll for himself. "Legends work, and you know quickly your little students figured that power out-"

Matt rolled his eyes disdainfully. "Alex, they still needed training, Helen made sure of that. But," he looked appraisingly at Belen and Kathryn, "I don't suppose you have anything you could use as an example?"

Kathryn squinted. "Actually . . . I _could_ try it, but you know how this works . . . Helen, you're going to be in for one hell of a ride, you know-"

"Don't I know it?" Helen muttered. "Which one?"

Belen and Kathryn immediately pointed at two different things on the list. "That one."

Belen sighed, then conceded, "Actually . . . I guess that could work, but you _are_ going to have one heck of a time with your plans, and this just seems a little overdone-"

"Benefit of not having actual plans," Helen smiled. "Okay. We'll do that. However, there's still that little thing-"

"Don't worry about it," Lily smiled. "Dormancy, unrest - messages from a higher reality-" here all seven of the others snickered- "I think we can handle it."

The three of them exchanged smiles, then identical looks of panic crossed their faces. "Alex!"

Alex, who just happened to have been standing right behind them, jumped. "_What?!_"

"Your _thing!_" Kathryn groaned. "Now we have to find a way to work through the whole no-interference rule!"

Nine groans echoed around the table. Alex was the only one who didn't seem angry - he only seemed vaguely worried.

"But . . . I still get to do it, right?" he asked uncertainly.

There was no contest: the groans were even louder this time.

Helen sighed, then ran a hand through her hair. "Well, we might just have to bend the rules. Ah, the powers of magic . . . "

"Are you sure you want to go that route?" asked Will. "If you do this, you know this loses its particular edge."

"I'm dealing with that," said Belen, sliding a sheet of parchment across the table. "See what you think."

Will read, then nodded and passed it to Alex, who said, "Yes, I think that will serve nicely. And I take it you want all else remaining the same."

"If it's not too much trouble."

Will smiled. "No trouble at all. Not when you bring something like this to our table. I'm curious, though - we've made everything doable - except for Alex's little thing - but I'd like to know exactly why you're so adamant on making this perfect."

Kathryn smiled and shrugged sadly. "It's for us," she said. "And for you. So you can have a world to look after that's perfect, that you don't need to intervene in, and that will stay that way for a couple hundred years. Sounds like heaven for a bunch of otherworldly guardians."

Matt, Will, Rose, Lily, Connor, Anne, and Alex nodded wistfully. "It does."

Belen clapped her hands together and smiled deviously. "Well then, let's get to work."

* * *

**_Authors' Notes:_** Yes, this is co-co-written. Belen (BunnyPrincess101), Helen (helenw713), and Kathryn (TK216411) have collaborated to write together. Yes, we're in here, and yes, we're twelve years older than in real life. This is the prologue, but it's fairly long, so the chapters my prove to be shorter or longer or about the same length as this. Please don't forget to review, even if you're just saying "I didn't understand one word of that."


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